LONDON Thousands of people marched through London on Saturday to protest against Britain leaving the European Union, just four days before Prime Minister Theresa May launches the start of the formal divorce process from the bloc it joined 44 years ago. The Unite for Europe march was due to end with a rally in Parliament Square, scene of this week’s attack by British-born Islam convert Khalid Masood […]
Like an old vinyl record with a well-worn groove, the needle skipping merrily back to the same track over and over again, we repeat: Today’s markets are dangerously overpriced. Being market fundamentalists who don’t believe it’s possible to simply print prosperity out of thin air, we’ve been deeply skeptical of the financial markets ever since the central banks began their highly interventionist policies. Since 2009, they have […]
SOFIA Former Bulgarian weightlifting coach Ivan Abadzhiev, one of the sport’s most successful and prominent figures, has died aged 85, officials said on Saturday. Widely known as “The Pope of Weightlifting,” Abadzhiev led Bulgaria to 10 Olympic, 57 world and 64 European titles between 1968 and 2000, making weightlifting the Balkan country’s most successful sport. As a competitor, he won Bulgaria’s first world championship medal after finishing […]
Twenty-seven EU leaders gathered in Rome on Saturday to pay homage to their 60-year-old integration project, celebrating its postwar founding ideals at a moment of fragility for the union, just days before Britain files to quit the bloc. On a day that mixed vaulting tributes with mass-protests on the streets, the leaders met to renew their vows in the splendour of a Renaissance palace where six states signed […]
A rush by emerging market governments to sell debt before the US Federal Reserve further raises interest rates this year has propelled issuance in Asia to record levels since the start of January, new data shows. Swelled by a $3bn Indonesian bond launched on Thursday, the total value of sovereign bonds sold in Asia, excluding Japan, reached $8.2bn in the year so far, up from $6.5bn in […]
GENEVA: Saudi Arabia called for delegating more experts to the Yemen-based Human Rights Commission’s Office, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.The move is important in order to back up workings of the Independent National Committee, in identifying violations and trespasses committed on the ground, SPA noted.Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Wassel, the Saudi Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, recently addressed the 34th session of the Human Rights Council in […]
By Alberto Alerigi and Thais Freitas | SAO PAULO SAO PAULO Brazil’s meat exports have fallen sharply since a police investigation into alleged bribery of food-sanitation inspectors in the world’s top beef and poultry exporter sparked a wave of trade bans, an industry group said on Friday. Restrictions by several key importers of Brazilian meat, ranging from China to Europe, caused a 22 percent drop in weekly […]
March 24, 2017 by: Eric Platt in New York and Stephen Smith in London The US stock market closed lower on Friday as the Trump administration’s struggle in Congress to repeal Obamacare heightened concerns about its ability to drive through an economic agenda that had spurred equity valuations to fresh records. The S&P 500 ended down 0.1 per cent to 2,344 reversing a 0.4 per cent advance […]
The Fed’s most recurring lament over the past 8 years, ever since the Financial crisis, is that there has been no measurable inflation in the US economy when using such conventional indicators as CPI, even though according to recent measurements by PriceStats real inflation, not the BLS’ seasonally-adjusted, goalseeked and politically convenient mutant, is now running at a blistering 3.6%, the highest in five years. That […]
By Stoyan Nenov | KAPITAN ANDREEVO, Bulgaria KAPITAN ANDREEVO, Bulgaria Bulgarian nationalists blocked border checkpoints with Turkey on Friday to stop buses bringing Bulgarian ethnic Turks to vote in Sunday’s election amid growing tension between the two neighbours. Sofia has accused Ankara of interference in its election on behalf of the DOST party that represents Bulgarian Turks, the country’s largest ethnic minority. Polls suggest DOST will fall […]
By Pavel Polityuk and Alessandra Prentice | AVDIYIVKA/KIEV AVDIYIVKA/KIEV Ukrainian government troops and separatist fighters have drawn closer to each other at several places along the tense front line in eastern Ukraine, monitors say, raising the risk of violent flare-ups that could wreck a shaky ceasefire. At some points, the sides have drawn within shouting distance of each other. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, […]
By Susan Cornwell and Richard Cowan | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. Republican lawmakers struggling to overcome differences over new healthcare legislation confronted a stark choice after President Donald Trump delivered an ultimatum: pass the bill on Friday or keep Obamacare in place. Trump, a real estate magnate who touted his dealmaking prowess in the 2016 presidential campaign, faced the first major test of how well his skills would […]
Not everything is Donald Trump’s fault. And by the same token, not everything that goes right in the world can be attributed to him. It can be difficult to remember this, particularly in the US where domestic politics is crowding out almost everything else from the news, and where most people are inclined to view the news through stridently pro- or anti-Trump lenses. Mr Trump seems so […]
By Stephanie Nebehay | GENEVA GENEVA The top United Nations human rights body agreed on Friday to send an international fact-finding mission to investigate widespread allegations of killings, rape and torture by security forces against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. But Myanmar ambassador Htin Lynn, speaking before the decision was taken by consensus, rejected the move as “not acceptable”. Myanmar’s national commission had just interviewed alleged […]
Breaking news. (photo credit:JPOST STAFF) MANILA – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte hit out at the European Union on Friday for hypocrisy and called the bloc “sons of bitches” after its lawmakers issued a resolution calling for restraint and a rethink in his bloody war on drugs. Duterte castigated the EU for urging him to focus his campaign on drugs rehabilitation and stood by his security-centered […]
Friday 06:00 GMT Overview Asian stock markets continued to recover after a midweek sell-off and as a highly anticipated vote on US healthcare reform was pushed back until later on Friday. European bourses are expected to open on the front foot, with spreadbetters predicting the UK’s FTSE 100 will add 8 points to 7,349 and Germany’s Dax to advance 20 points to 12,060. Hot topic Global markets […]
PARIS A month before the first round of France’s presidential election, 43 percent of voters are hesitant about who to vote for, a poll said on Friday, underlining the uncertainty surrounding the volatile election campaign. Opinion polls show independent centrist Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen likely to lead in the first round of the election on April 23 and that these two candidates would […]
Chartbeat and CrowdTangle today announced a major expansion of a tool for measuring how stories are performing on social platforms. The two companies began a beta version of the Offsite Social service in September 2016. Two months later Facebook acquired CrowdTangle. The announcement says that Facebook is now making a “robust” (but unspecified) additional investment in expanding what’s measured and taking the service global including to European […]
Two prominent economists, Anne Case and Angus Deaton, made national headlines when they reported in 2015 the spike in mortality among midlife white Americans since 1999, higher than the death rates of blacks, Hispanics, and Europeans. This time, Case and Deaton said the steady rise of deaths among white working-class Americans could have its roots to the not-so-rosy opportunities for the less-educated as they enter the job market. […]
The pound turned in the best performance among major currencies on Thursday, gearing up for next week’s Article 50 activation by rallying to its highest level for a month following buoyant retail data. Having momentarily regained the $1.25 level on Wednesday, sterling climbed a third of a per cent against the dollar after a 3.7 per cent rise in February retail sales, well above analysts’ forecasts. Sterling […]
MOSCOW — It’s 2017, and the new Cold War is in full swing. The West is winning, for now. U.S. sanctions have impoverished Russia. But the two sides are poised at a critical juncture. The Russians have come up with new technology to drill for gas that could send their economy skyrocketing again, putting the West on the back foot. And so, the CIA sends President Donald […]
Investors rushed to participate in Volkswagen’s return to European bond markets on Thursday, with the German carmaker’s first benchmark issue following the emissions scandal attracting huge demand. The €8bn euro-denominated bond attracted €24bn of orders by late afternoon, when books were closed ahead of final pricing. Bankers said the deal was launched with a spread 15 basis points tighter than initial indications. “There was a lot of […]
The irony of revelations from the Global Laundromat scandal landing almost exactly a year on from the Panama Paper leaks is not lost on many readers. Clearly the lip-service to greater transparency that followed the financial leak has come to nought. The Laundromat scandal has exposed billions of dollars being moved out of Russia through anonymously owned UK companies and Britain’s high street banks. Anonymous companies – the […]
ROME Five migrants were found dead in the sea off Libya on Thursday after the boats they were travelling in sank, likely carrying hundreds more to their deaths, an aid organisation said. Proactiva Open Arms, one of several groups operating in the area, said it was notified that an inflatable boat was sinking early on Thursday and found another going down shortly afterwards. “We brought on board […]
